FROM STAFF REPORTS
Traffic will move a little more slowly in some areas of Raleigh County today as 80 to 100 young people make a sacred pilgrimage.
Teens from Calvary Assembly of God Church, Crab Orchard Baptist Church, Open Door Church at Shady Spring, Heart of God Ministries, Stotesbury Community Church, First Baptist Church of Beckley and Cornerstone Baptist Church walk more than 30 miles on Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday.
"It's a way of identifying with Christ and how He suffered for us," said Adam Pelfrey, youth pastor at Calvary, which started the Via Dolorosa — the way of suffering — in Beckley several years ago. "We can't ever fully experience what He went through, but this gives us a small sense of what it was like."
Pelfrey said the large number of walkers can hold traffic up at times, so some motorists may want to seek alternate routes.
Walkers will begin at 9 a.m. each day and finish walking in late afternoon Friday and Saturday. Friday's starting point is in Ghent at Assembly of God headquarters off U.S. 19 & Flat Top Mt. Road
On Sunday, teens will carry their church's cross down the aisle into their respective Sunday morning worship services.
For the complete route schedule, read Friday's edition of The Register-Herald.
